WACO, Texas — A few months after he was sworn into office, President Bush flew to Slovenia where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The meeting was closely watched around the world because Bush had talked tough about missile defense plans and relations with Russia during his presidential campaign.
Coming out of their first meeting, Bush embarrassingly told the world, "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."
Fortunately, Putin, a career KGB superspy, had the experience and training to not burst out laughing.
Hidden behind Putin's baby blues is an unswerving autocrat who will not let small matters such as national sovereignty or Russia's constitution stand in the way of his designs to restore Russia to a dominant superpower.
Few people doubt that Putin, who is now prime minister, still pulls the strings in Russia through his puppet President Dmitri Medvedev, who now claims that Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia to prevent the genocide of Russian citizens.
Russia and the democratically elected government of Georgia lurched into a mismatched shooting war over South Ossetia, a largely ignored Georgian province that has long sought its independence.
Georgia has another province, Abkhazia, that also seeks independence. Russia sent "peacekeeping" troops there as well to protect "their" citizens — Georgian citizens who had been given Russian passports.
It's unlikely that the Russian "peacekeepers" have any intention of pulling out of these two provinces or that the United States, NATO or the United Nations can do anything about it.
Bush has sternly warned his soul-mate that it is not gentlemanly to invade a sovereign nation and claim territory recognized to be a part of Georgia by the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other sovereign nations around the globe.
Both presidential candidates have condemned Russia's military invasion. That and a fiver will get you a venti white chocolate mocha.
The West-leaning government of Georgia has asked to join NATO, a move that angers Putin. A few months ago NATO announced that it would allow Georgia to join at some point.
The Russian invasion, which essentially cut Georgia in half, may have been a partial response to NATO's announcement. The invasion certainly sends a sledge-hammer clear message to other nearby neighbors that the Russian bear will not readily accept Western encroachment within the its expanding sphere of influence.
NATO would have found itself in a pickle if it had already accepted Georgia into its international organization. Would NATO really send in troops to defend a fellow member? If not, NATO would be seen as little more than a paper tiger.
The United Nations, which should be a natural to handle this sort of international violation, has already proven itself to be a paper tiger. There are such things as U.N. sanctions but that is not possible when Russia, as one of five permanent members of the Security Council, can easily veto any attempt to impose sanctions on Putin's surging autocracy.
The United States is the only nation capable of doing more than talking the talk. It is highly unlikely, however, that the American people have the will to walk the walk with Russia over some tiny province in the Caucasus. A seven-year, two-pronged war in Iraq and Afghanistan will do that.
Putin knows all this, of course. Russia can continue to expand its influence into neighboring countries with little to fear except words.
Since Bush gazed into Putin's eyes to read his soul, Russia has used its oil and gas supplies as a weapon against the West, ordered trade blockades, sent assassins into foreign nations, launched campaigns to destroy the free press and redefined its constitution and rule of law.
So far, Putin sees no reason to blink.
Rowland Nethaway writes for the Waco Tribune-Herald. E-mail: RNethaway AT wacotrib.com
